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MONETARY HISTORY CALENDAR April 23-29

2012 – PUBLISHED ARTICLE, “SEVEN LARGEST U.S. BANKS HAVE CREATED THOUSANDS OF SUBSIDIARIES TO AVOID TAXES: FED REPORT”
“America’s seven biggest banks now have more than 14,500 subsidiaries around the world, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (h/t Bloomberg). They have hatched more than 10,000 of these subsidiaries since 1991, largely in an aim to skirt regulations and taxes, according to the report.”

JULY 24

1862 – DEATH OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 8TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“It can only be when the agriculturalists abandon the implements and the field of their labor and become, with those who now assist them, shopkeepers, manufacturers, carriers, and traders, that the Republic will be brought in danger of the influences of the MONEY POWER”

2012 – COMMENTS BY NEIL BAROFKSY, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM (TARP)
Neil Barofksy says on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that the Treasury Department’s housing policies were “Foaming The Runway For The Banks.” More TARP money went to help American Express than all the struggling homeowners.

JULY 25

1876 – BIRTH OF CONGRESSMAN LOUIS T. MCFADDEN (R-PA), CHAIRMAN OF THE HOUSE BANKING AND CURRENCY COMMITTEE
“We have in this country one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks. Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are U.S. government institutions. They are private credit monopolies; domestic swindlers, rich and predatory money lenders which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign customers…The truth is the Federal Reserve Board has usurped the Government of the United States by the arrogant credit monopoly which operates the Federal Reserve Board.”

2011 – PRESENTATION OF “WORKINGS OF A PUBLIC MONEY SYSTEM OF OPEN MACROECONOMICS – MODELING THE AMERICAN MONETARY ACT COMPLETED,” BY KAORU YAMAGUCHI, PROFESSOR, DOSHISHA UNIVERSITY, KYOTO JAPAN
“Being intensified by the recent financial crisis in 2008, debt crises seem to be looming ahead among many OECD countries due to the runaway accumulation of government debts. This paper first explores them as a systemic failure of the current debt money system. Secondly, with an introduction of open macroeconomies, it examines how the current sys- tem can cope with the liquidation of government debt, and obtains that the liquidation of debts triggers recessions, unemployment and foreign economic recessions contagiously. Thirdly, it explores the workings of a public money system proposed by the American Monetary Act and finds that the liquidation under this alternative system can be put into effect without causing recessions, unemployment and inflation as well as foreign recessions. Finally, public money policies that incorporate balancing feedback loops such as anti-recession and anti-inflation are introduced for curbing GDP gap and inflation. They are posed to be simpler and more effective than the complicated Keynesian policies.”
This paper was originally presented at the 29th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society in Washington D.C. http://monetary.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/DesignOpenMacro.pdf

JULY 26

1925 – DEATH OF WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, SECRETARY OF STATE
“We say in our platform that we believe that the right to coin money and issue money is a function of government…Those who are opposed to the proposition tell us that the issue of paper money is a function of the bank and that the government ought to go out of the banking business. I stand with Jefferson…and tell them, as he did, that the issue of money is a function of the government and that the banks should go out of the governing business…When we have restored the money of the Constitution, all other necessary reforms will be possible, and … until that is done, there is no reform that can be accomplished.”

JULY 27

1694 – ROYAL CHARTER GRANTED TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND
King William II (William of Orange) created the privately owned central bank via a charter (a license to exist) out of urgency. England needed to rebuild its navy to counter the French, but the sovereign King William II lacked the money or credit. He traded his exclusive right to create money to the private bank. The bank raised money from shareholders, which was loaned to the King at interest. The bank also created money out of nothing. As William Patterson, the bank’s co-founder and early Director, said, “The bank hath benefit of interest on all moneys which it creates out of nothing.” The bank is located in the 1 square mile City of London, a separate city within the larger London municipality.

2012 – NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LETTER CARRIERS ADOPS A RESOLUTION AT THEIR NATIONAL CONVENTION TO INVESTIGATE ESTABLISHING A POSTAL BANKING SYSTEM
The resolution noted that expanding postal services and developing new sources of revenue are important to the effort to save the public Post Office and preserve living-wage jobs; that many countries have a successful history of postal banking, including Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States itself; and that postal banks could serve the 9 million people who don’t have bank accounts and the 21 million who use usurious check cashers, giving low-income people access to a safe banking system. “A USPS bank would offer a ‘public option’ for banking,” concluded the resolution, “providing basic checking and savings – and no complex financial wheeling and dealing.” At one time, the Postal Savings System offered savings accounts to depositors, but no loans. When banks failed after the Great Depression, many people shifted their remaining funds. The Postal Savings System held upwards of 20% of the nation’s savings in the mid 1940’s. Commercial/corporate banks opposed the efficient system (post offices served as bank branches) and lobbied for their limitation and finally elimination, which occurred in 1967. One wonders to what extent current efforts to eliminate the Post Office are based on eliminating this legitimate alternative to private banking corporations.

JULY 28

1919 – BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA FOUNDED
The Bank of North Dakota is the only state-owned bank in the US. Its primary deposit base is the State of North Dakota. All state funds and funds of state institutions are deposited with the Bank, as required by law. Other deposits are accepted from any source, private citizens to the U.S. government.

2014 – PUBLISHED POLL OF UK PARLIAMENT MEMBERS SHOWING THEIR INGORANCE OF MONEY CREATION
100 MPs were polled through Dods Monitoring in July 2014. MPs were asked to read a number of statements and indicate whether they were true or false. They could also select “Don’t know”. In response to the statement “Only the government – via the Bank of England or Royal Mint – has the authority to create money, including coins, notes and the electronic money in your bank account.”, 71% said this was true, 20% said it was false (the correct answer) and 9% said they didn’t know. There was no significant difference between the parties. In response to the statement “New money is created when banks make loans, and existing money is destroyed when members of the public repay loans.”, only 12% of MPs gave the correct answer: true. 64% of MPs said this was false, while 24% said they didn’t know. The full results can be found at http://bit.ly/1qTZHHa

JULY 29

2011 – PUBLICATION OF ARTICLE “YOU CAN’T SOLVE THE DEBT CRISIS WITH MORE DEBT” BY BEN DYSON, DIRECTOR, POSITIVE MONEY
“We cannot solve a debt crisis by adding more debt.
It`s a fact that seems to have been completely missed by the IMF, European Union and our own government.
The solution to Greece? More debt. The solution to the US government`s inability to fund two simultaneous wars from tax revenue: more debt. The solution to the high indebtedness of ordinary people in the UK? Get banks lending again: let`s have more debt. …
What we need now is not more debt, but less of it.
But for the economic mainstream and those young and inexperienced civil servants who are deciding how to fix one of the largest banking systems in the world, it seems perfectly normal to let banks create money out of nothing to lend to people who already have too much debt. The idea of taking that power away from the banks, and using newly-created money to actually reduce the indebtedness of ordinary people seems radical and somewhat dangerous to them.”

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Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt? Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice. This calendar is the original project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini, Deb Jose and Greg Coleridge helped in its development. It is currently updated by Greg Coleridge. Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, email monetarycalendar@yahoo.com
To see the calendar year-to-date, go to https://monetarycalendar.wordpress.com/
A second historical calendar, the REAL Democracy History Calendar, in many ways complements this calendar. For information, go to https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com/about/